Beke Hall Rayleigh And Rawreth

A Memory of Rayleigh.

Hi, I am looking for any information on Beke Hall, Rayleigh (sometimes spelt Beak - or with Farm in the title!). It is situated on the left side of London Road out towards Wickford and is first mentioned in 1523. The furthest back I can go, Beke Hall owned 140 acres covering all of little Wheatleys up to Great wheatleys. I am looking for any information from any era over the last 500 years! Anyone's memories of it in the 960s or wartime or anything anyone can tell me. The building itself is a white clapperboard Georgian-looking farmhouse but of course it also pre-dates Georgian times. Apparently it was one of five manors that owned most of the bottom of Rayleigh and all Rawreth.  I would love to know if anyone was living in it in during the wartimes etc. Please please give any info you have.
Many thanks,


Added 21 July 2010

#229019

Comments & Feedback

After World War 2, and with the help of some business partners, my father bought Fanton Hall Farm (a mile or two to the west of Beke Hall) and we lived there and farmed the land until the early 1960s. They also owned and farmed Dollymans Farm plus some small holdings nearby, including Beke Hall - about 850 acres in all - and called it Rawreth Estates Ltd.
In the early 1950s my sisters and I often used to ride over to Beke Hall and explore the house. It was empty and derelict then. Once, at school, around 1952, one of our masters read a bit about the house from a book where it was described as "formerly moated". I was able to say I knew it and had been in it.
It was cut off from Dollymans farm in the late 1950s when the original A130 (now A1245) was built, and then by the new A130 in 2002. At some stage the massive electricity substation was also built between the two roads - all visible on Google Earth.
There were two monuments nearby to two light aircraft pilots who crashed and died in 1918 after shooting down German Bombers. Although the farmer who set up the monuments wanted them to remain 'in perpetuity' at least one has been built over by the new A130.
At some stage Beke Hall was developed, and in May 2010 it was described on the internet by an estate agent as "a 16th century farmhouse, with 3 reception rooms, 4 bedrooms, 10 acres of ground, a 2-bedroomed annexe, 4 stables, a barn, a large pond and a tennis court." It was on the market for £975,000!
Two or three years ago I sent this information to someone who was living there. Was it you? Or have you recently bought the place?
Andrew Barnardo
anbarnardo@aol.com
Dear Andrew and whoever was seeking information about Beke Hall. I too am trying to find out more about the house as my Grandfather Ernest Lazell was born there in 1900. His father Frederick Lazell was a farm labourer and probably was working there for a short time. In the census for 1901 he is not living there anymore. If you have found out anything further that would be good. I am going to visit my Dad in a few weeks again and hoped to drive up and see it a little closer. Perhaps I ought to write to the owner first! Paula Jenkins paula.maynot@btinternet.com

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